With less than 48 hours until the constitutive sessions for new municipal councils, to be held on Saturday throughout the Spanish state, the coalition proposals that will seek to lead Barcelona for the next four years are, finally, taking shape. The Trias for Barcelona candidate, Xavier Trias, and the head of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) list, Ernest Maragall, have this Thursday agreed on a pact to govern the city council, as ElNacional.cat has been able to learn from sources in the negotiation. The proposal would return the 2011-15 mayor Trias to the leadership of the Catalan capital while Maragall would be first deputy mayor. As for the municipal portfolios, four positions would go to Trias's team, strongly oriented towards Together for Catalonia (Junts), and two posts to ERC. The proposal will have to be submitted to both Junts and ERC party members before this Saturday at 5pm, start time for the plenary session to constitute the new council, resulting from the municipal elections of May 28th, and where the new mayor will be voted on.
The agreement was finalized this Thursday after a meeting of Trias and Maragall in the early afternoon, and the fine print of the deal, including the full division of responsibilities on the new council, is still to be made public. The pact should guarantee the election of Xavier Trias as mayor, after he was the most voted candidate on May 28th, obtaining 11 councillors, while the Republicans obtained five. To take the mayoralty in the constitutive session, a candidate must obtain the support of an absolute majority of the council, which in the case of Barcelona, means 21 of the 41 councillors. However, in the event that no candidate obtains an absolute majority, the head of the list of the candidate with the most election day votes - that is, Trias - would be appointed mayor.
Collboni maintains the pressure
Meanwhile, this afternoon the head of the Catalan Socialist (PSC) list, Jaume Collboni, announced that he is maintaining his challenge to take the mayoralty of Barcelona on Saturday. Collboni thus keeps the pressure on Ada Colau and demands the support of her 9 BComú councillors, guaranteeing that if he is elected mayor he will incorporate the alternative left party, which has headed the council for the last eight years, into a Socialist-led city government. However, a PSC-Comuns alliance, bringing together 19 council seats, would need the support of a third political group to reach the magic figure of 21 votes. Initial proposals from these parties after the elections, especially from the Comuns, sought to incorporate ERC into a progressive coalition, an option which the Republicans have never warmed to, while, on the other hand, meetings between Maragall and Trias were proceeding. Thus, the only possibilities remaining for the Collboni-Colau tandem were with the two parties of the Spanish right, the People's Party (PP, with 4 seats) and far-right Vox (two seats). The two Vox councillors announced on Thursday that they would vote for themselves, while the PP's Daniel Sirera has made it clear in recent days that he will not vote in favour of a city government in which Ada Colau's party forms part. This Thursday afternoon, after Collboni confirmed his proposal to bid for the mayoralty in Saturday's council vote, it was BComú who made it clear that they would not enter into any equation "that included the participation or agreement of the PP".
"Ara, toca els Comuns." Above, the Socialist candidate Jaume Collboni challenges Ada Colau's Comuns on Thursday afternoon to vote for his candidature at Saturday's constitutive meeting of the Barcelona city council. However, the Comuns have already ruled out a deal if it requires support from the PP.
Below, our "pactòmetre", making it possible to visualise the alternative party combinations that - in theory - could reach an absolute majority of 21 council seats in Barcelona. In practice, barring a last minute surprise, Xavier Trias's status as election winner, with the support of ERC, should be enough to make him mayor of the Catalan capital for the second time, without an absolute majority being required.
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